Developer and entrepreneur Ian Schrager has commissioned two public art projects that have debuted at 20 Times Square, aka 701 Seventh Avenue. The site is home of the EDITION, a newly opened hotel, and is one of the newest buildings to be built at the crossroads of the world. The building is also home to one of the largest LED screens in the world. The billboard art is being curated by multimedia design studio Sila Sveta. One of the videos will show an interactive robotic installation that pays homage to Alexander McQueen’s Spring runway show from 1999. The LED board is located on the lower floors of the hotel which sits at the northeastern corner of West 47th Street and Seventh Avenue.
Below are four renderings of what will be displayed on the LED screen.
A collection of tall trees surrounded by bands of light
Geometric blocks
Scattered neon signs
Multiple draped curtains
“We wanted to bring something unforgettable to Times Square and create an iconic moment to mark the opening of The Times Square EDITION,” Schrager said. “The activations will be unique visual experiences that the public can take part in to celebrate this momentous occasion.”
Schrager’s vision eschews traditional passive advertisements and instead aims to immerse the public with a digital artwork it can embrace and admire.
“Billboard art is an incredible intersection of mediums in public art that has yet to be fully explored,” said Paulina Zakh of Sila Sveta. “By creating site-specific artworks, we want to augment architecture with environment. All our pieces are truly inspired by ‘perfect moments’ in time—some of them are weird, some are simple, some are provocative. We challenged ourselves to redefine this historically commercial epicenter and establish a new visual dialogue with the city.”
The installation opened to the public on Wednesday March 13, and the billboard art will showcase on the giant LED screen every hour until March 25.
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The four renderings appear to be ‘spatial’, inverting the effective convex corner to represent hollow space. This will be an interesting and provocative installation, not to mention a welcome respite from the deadening glut of commercial advertising.
David, we’ll pardon you. What are your thoughts?